Parallel
A Harry Potter/Gundam Wing fanfic by Stormy
18-Dec-02
Rating: R
Pairings: 1x2, 3x4
Summary: Heero Yuy and Harry Potter. Transcending time and space, the mystery of what became of Harry Potter is about to unfold.
Warnings: Shonen ai (1x2), possible SBxRL (Should I or shouldn't I? ^^)
Spoilers: TPS, CoS, PoA, GoF, (HP), Endless Waltz (GW)
Additional Notes: The idea of the little pink plastic practise wands from St. Mungo's was borrowed from audiaa2 and her wonderful fic "Circumstance and Consequence". When I was trying to decide how one would test for magical ability, I remembered her fic and thought that was perfect! I'm modifying it a bit but the original idea is hers and hers alone and to her, I pay homage.
I am still unable to get into my email for more then three minutes at a time. My new cable modem works better then the old, but now there's an outage in the area that's playing havoc with my server. And when my internet windows crash, so does my operating system. A warning to you all – DO NOT USE WINDOWS ME! Upgrade!
I wasn't expecting to get this out so quickly, but I saw the four lights flash on the modem – I have about ten minutes (if I'm lucky) before it dies again! Must post!
Thanks for all the Get-Well-Wishes for my computer. ^^ I love the 'prayer' you wrote me Tee-dee – I couldn't stop laughing!
I thought that being a Gundam pilot would have taken precedence in my mind as to what was the most unusual aspect of my life. I was quickly coming to the conclusion that with friends such as mine, I had my entire life yet to go in which strange scenarios would undoubtedly pop up and change my perceptions yet again. Until the next round however, I decided that being tested for magical powers was the new first place winner.
Still, I believe I'm handling this rather well. Of course, seeing a dog transform into a man is not something I think I'll ever get over, but I haven't broken down in my shock so far. Of course if I did, Quatre would worry far more then what was healthy for him and Duo would never let me forget it. Wufei? Well, he's handling everything being thrown at him about as well as I am – the 'shower incident' this morning notwithstanding. I think it's because he's determined not to let anyone see him at a moment of weakness.
I don't understand how learning that magic really does seem to exist would be grounds for weakness, but then Wufei has always had a more…rigid, background then the rest of us. As Duo would say, Wufei was probably being held together with string and bubble gum right now.
The thought of Wufei losing it nearly brought a smile to my face but I managed to shove it aside as I rose from the long table where we had been served breakfast. Heero's friend, Hermione, was eager to get started on our 'tests', reminding me of a nervous horse champing at the bit.
A quick glance at Quatre shows me he's eager as well – but also somewhat apprehensive. That little chest rub motion he makes when his 'space heart' is acting up is a dead give away that he's picking up on something. It could either be the magic that seems to be a part of the very air here that he's reacting to, or it could be my nerves or Wufei's that he's sensing. I reach over and hold his hand, squeezing gently, reminding him that I'm here for him. The smile I get in return is nearly blinding in its intensity and I can see him visibly settle himself a bit.
"Come on, come on!" Duo has joined Hermione in trying to herd us along, and with a laugh, Quatre allows me to pull him to his feet before turning to the braided boy.
"We're coming Duo! Calm yourself my friend!" He tapped Duo's chest lightly. "If you're this excited now, what will you be like if you find out you have magic?"
Duo's eyes widened in excitement – and then abruptly darkened and he levelled an unusually serious look at Quatre.
"Shit, Quat – I didn't even think. Are you okay? You gotta be picking up some freaky vibes around here."
That's our Shinigami – always thinking of his friends. I can't say I'm as receptive as Quatre to Duo's ministrations when he thinks one of us is hurt, either mentally or physically, nor Wufei at that, but he and Quatre have always been close. Having so many sisters made Quatre long for a brother and he once confessed to me that Duo was the big brother he'd always wanted. Duo seemed to feel the same, and it wasn't unusual to hear him refer to Quatre as his 'little bro'.
Quatre flashed another million-watt smile at the American. "I'm fine Duo! I just don't want you to keel over from a heart attack!"
"Never!" Duo grinned back easily, and then gripped Quatre's other hand. He looked over at me. "Shall we skip along?"
The smile refused to stay hidden this time. I have to laugh, albeit quietly, and Duo takes that as a positive sign.
"Wuffer's?"
Wufei sighed at the dreaded nickname and glared at Duo. "Restrain yourself, Maxwell. And watch your language – there are ladies present."
Duo blinked in confusion and then remembered Hermione and Professor McGonagall standing next to them, and turned a faint red. Ron was smiling, and Hermione kept glancing worriedly between Duo and the teacher. McGonagall, however, didn't seem to have heard the casual obscenity spit out by Duo and merely glanced at the oddly shaped watch on her wrist.
"Let's move along, gentlemen," was all she said. With a cheer, Duo snagged Hermione with his other arm and dragged her, Quatre and myself after the teacher. A quick glance behind showed Wufei shaking his head before taking up position behind us. My smile returned briefly – it seemed I was not the only one who had a hard time dropping old habits. There seemed to be nothing at this school that would harm us, but all of us would still follow the unspoken rules.
Duo was the natural point with his stealth abilities, and Heero was his automatic partner. Quatre was an excellent fighter in his Gundam and a master strategist, but he lacked the outdoor survival training the rest of us had had, and so he kept to the middle, with myself flanking him for added protection. Wufei always took rear point, his gun and his sword providing him ample protection against both long and short-range opponents. It was an automatic given.
I knew that Duo was joking around with Hermione as we all followed the teacher, who had reverted to her feline form again, but I also knew that he was constantly scanning for danger, regardless of how much he seemed to like it here. Wufei was doing the same thing, and so was I. Quatre was smiling at Duo's jokes and chatting with Ron but I knew that he was monitoring the immediate area for hostile thoughts directed at us.
Heero was now the unknown to me. I firmly believed that I knew the real Heero Yuy, and I still did. My problem was that I did not know Harry. The two were now inexplicably intertwined, and I could no longer reasonably expect Heero to react in the same fashion he always had. A bystander might consider that an unfair assumption for me to make, but as a soldier, and a warrior for peace, I had to take everything into account, make a judgement and hope for the best.
Still, Heero was the dominant personality – that much was clear. So far, the emergence of his memories as 'Harry' resulted him being a little mellower then before, certainly a bit more social as we saw with Ron and Hermione. I wondered what other surprises would come up.
Then we reached a large doorway above which an antiquated sign that read "Transfigurations" was hung and I remembered that more surprises were currently on their way.
I'm not sure what I was expecting by way of testing. I suppose you can't judge a person's magical ability or lack thereof with a written examination or multiple-choice test. Still, the little pink stick sitting on the table before me made me raise an eyebrow in confusion.
Duo picked it up and glared at it in disbelief, turning it around in his hands. "It looks like one of those sticks you get in a home pregnancy test!" he objected. "Where's the little plus or minus sign?"
Hermione burst out laughing. "It's a practise wand, Duo!"
Duo snorted at her and tossed the stick to Quatre. "Here Q-Ball – it's just your shade."
Quatre caught the wand and playfully bapped the Shinigami pilot on the head. "And just how would you know so much about home pregnancy tests?"
"I know a lot about many things, young one," Duo intoned in what he must have thought was an older-sounding, wise man-type voice, slinging his arm around Quatre's shoulders, since my arm was firmly wrapped around his waist. "Stick with me – I'll teach you about the world in no time!"
With a laugh, Quatre handed the wand to Wufei who studied it intently, as though trying to learn all its secrets through mere observation. After a few minutes, he snorted and gave it to me. I glanced at it and placed it back on the table.
"I trust you find it free of any booby traps now, gentlemen?" Minerva said archly. I gave her a blank look. It had been another habit – never trust blindly. Wufei gave her an unreadable look as well – I think he found her attitude patronizing, and I could sympathize.
Ron had his own wand out and lay it next to the pink one. "It's only half the size of mine," he said, fascinated. Apparently he'd never seen one before either.
Duo grinned. "I could make a joke about wizards, their wands, and comparing sizes, but Wufei would pull my braid out for forgetting my manners again."
McGonagall didn't even blink, but Hermione blushed bright red, as did Ron. It was interesting – these children were remarkably naïve and innocent. Then I mentally scolded myself – perhaps it was I and my fellow pilots who were too old, and too corrupted by war. For all I knew, Ron and Hermione were just acting normally for children who didn't grow up in a battlefield.
As pilots, we were forced to grow up much quicker, taking comfort where we could get it. My arm tightened slightly around Quatre and he automatically leaned back against me, letting me feel the weight of him, reminding me silently that he was there. I smiled again – you cannot hide anything from an empath.
"If we could get started, Mr. Maxwell?" McGonagall gave Duo a mild glare and he grinned sheepishly, reaching around behind him and pulling his braid over his shoulder, sticking the tip in his mouth and chewing the strands. I recognized the nervous habit – so did Quatre, and I watched my love gently pull the braid out of the American's mouth.
"Heero told you to stop chewing your braid," he said, smiling. "He said he's tired of hearing you whine about split ends."
Duo stuck out his tongue. In all likelihood, Heero just didn't like to see his boyfriend ruin that mane of hair he was so fascinated with. On more then one occasion, I had caught him running his hands through a sleeping Duo's hair, a look of complete awe on his face at what I assumed was the silky texture. Again, I could empathize. I took the same pleasure in Quatre's own golden hair.
If Duo was chewing his braid again, he really had to be nervous. He cared for his braid with an almost fanatical zeal and only extreme nerves made him chew the tip of it. In a split second I could see the desperate hope in his eyes that he would have some kind of power and I knew the braided boy well enough to know why.
Heero was obviously part of this magical community and would probably remain so. If Duo didn't have the same kind of power, then he would forever be separate from Heero's world. It would kill him to not be a part of it, but he was selfless enough that he would never force Heero to make a choice. If I knew Shinigami, it was more likely that he'd remove himself from the equation so the choice would never be an issue.
I suddenly made a silent wish that Duo test positive for magic. I didn't really care much myself – certainly the idea of magic was interesting, but I had lived my entire life without it. I could continue to do so. I had a gut feeling that Quatre would, and I knew that it didn't matter – I would be with him regardless, and love him no less. But I was used to being an inferior, as much as Quatre hated me referring to myself as such, and I could handle such a division between us by simply being there.
Heero and Duo were partners, but they were equals. In their relationship there was a constant clash of wills and testing of restraints and boundaries, but there was also an equal amount of love, passion and forgiveness. Such a division would be an impossible breach between them, and though I knew it was an absurd wish, I silently requested that Duo be given the gift instead of me.
McGonagall picked up the wand. "This is a practise wand, as Miss Granger said." She held it up to all of us. "These wands are commonly used in St. Mungo's, a wizard hospital, for wizards who either need to relearn magic after an accident, or need to learn how to handle their power. It acts as a focus, without responding to the individual wizard. As you can see," she nodded at Hermione and Ron," each wizard has their own wand. The wand chooses the wizards, and enhances their own ability. This practise wand doesn't respond to anyone specifically. Rather, it reacts to the magic within a person and helps to refine it." She smiled. "It's that simple reaction that I'm going to be looking for."
She handed the wand to Wufei, who received it gingerly, eyeing the stick as though it were going to electrocute him now that he knew what it did. McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "Go on, give it a swish."
Wufei shrugged and gripped the wand firmly, giving it a good wave. The little wand hummed almost silently and McGonagall blinked in surprise.
"Interesting," she murmured, and wrote something down on a piece of parchment she had handy. Hermione looked fascinated.
"What does that humming mean?" she asked eagerly. McGonagall frowned at her.
"In a moment, Miss Granger. I would wait until the tests have been completed before making any judgements."
Hermione sighed but sat back down. Wufei glanced at me, and handed Quatre the wand. Quatre sat up in my arms, and I let him move, giving him space enough. With a small smile at me, he clutched the wand and closed his eyes, swirling the wand in a small circle.
A soft glow emanated from the little wand and Quatre gasped, his eyes flying open and fixing on it. His face lit up with pleasure at the warm glow bathing his face. I smiled.
McGonagall smiled and made another notation on the parchment.
Duo was fairly dancing in his seat and I nodded at Quatre. Better to let the American get it over with before he bounced his way right on to the floor. With a small laugh, Quatre handed the pink stick over and Duo snatched it eagerly.
Then the eagerness drained from him, leaving behind a worried expression and a slight look of fear in his eyes that unnerved me. Fear was something of an unknown to Duo. A quick glance at Wufei revealed his own surprise at the naked emotions standing out from the braided baka and when his own eyes met mine, subconsciously I knew that Wufei was probably hoping the same thing for Duo as I was. The two of them would always appear the world at large as being enemies at worst, associates at best, but among us, we all knew that both would die for the other. Their taunting and teasing was something that had become ritualistic for them, something they could both count on.
If Duo didn't get to share the same world as Heero, Wufei would feel Duo's pain as keenly as he would his own.
With a shaky indrawn breath, Duo squeezed his eyes shut and frantically waved the wand around.
A light, not unlike Quatre's, shone from the wand. It was darker, but it was still warm and inviting, like Duo himself. I smiled – surely that was as positive a sign as anything.
Duo opened his eyes and let out the breath he'd been holding.
"Whoa," he said weakly and handed the wand to me. I accepted it calmly, and looked at Quatre.
His eyes were fixed on mine, conveying all the love he felt for me, as well as the acceptance. It doesn't matter, his eyes said to me, and suddenly, I honestly didn't care whether the wand lit or not.
My eyes still on his, I gave the wand an experimental wave, and heard the same light humming I'd heard when Wufei had tried. It didn't feel wrong, or right for that matter. The wand was warm in my hand, and I set it down on the table.
Quatre moved back in the circle of my arms and snuggled close. I could tell Ron and Hermione were still unused to the public display of affections but public opinion had never mattered to me. McGonagall glared at the two of us though, as though she disapproved of the action, but the softness hidden at the back of her eyes, nearly hidden by her spectacles, proved that at least it wasn't the nature of our relationship she felt was inappropriate.
That was good. Heero respected these people. It wouldn't do for me to attack them for making Quatre upset if they had negatively commented on two males in love.
I wondered how they were truly handling Heero and Duo's relationship.
Hermione was twitching in her seat, looking remarkably like Duo. "Professor?"
McGonagall was about to speak when the Transfigurations door opened and Heero walked in, followed by Sirius in dog-form. Duo grinned at him.
"Hee-chan!" Jumping up, he tackled Heero around the waist, hugging him tightly. It was to his credit that Heero didn't automatically push him away in the presence of others. Rather, his eyes seemed to glow a little, and the ever-present smirk softened just a fraction. To others, he would seem remarkably stiff, but Quatre, Wufei and myself could see the differences, plain as day.
Heero automatically wrapped the three-foot long plait of hair around his hand, gripping the tail end. 'My leash', he called it, to Duo's constant consternation. Duo slipped his arm around Heero's waist and guided him over to the desk we'd all been perched around.
Obligingly, I pushed back a little, bringing Quatre with me, giving Heero room to join us. Sirius transformed back into human form and hung back a little, deciding to sit on a neighbouring desk instead.
"So what's the verdict?" Heero asked. His voice was remarkably calm.
The professor looked back down at her parchment and briefly explained to them what they had done, holding up the pink plastic wand, and then telling what the results had been for each of us.
"What does that mean though?" Ron asked, confused. "That they're all magic?"
"Not quite," McGonagall said. She nodded at Duo and then at Quatre. "These two definitely have magical potential. The light reaction was a physical manifestation of your power, raw and untrained. With a real wand, one suited to each of you, you will find yourself able to do much more, if you decide to stay here and train in its use."
Duo let out a huge sigh of relief. "Oh thank Shinigami." He rubbed his chest and grinned weakly at the rest of us. "I think I was about to have that heart attack you warned me about, Quat."
"I can tell," Quatre said, just as weakly. He smiled at me reassuringly.
"I had no doubt," Heero said calmly, but his eyes were dancing. "You were able to use the Invisibility Cloak. If you had no magical ability, it would have stayed visible."
Duo froze and then glared at him. "You knew?"
"Yes."
"And you didn't see fit to inform me of this little fact? That it was a given?"
Heero shrugged and the corner of his mouth lifted. "I forgot?"
Duo growled and launched himself at his partner. Ron and Hermione started with alarm, but then blushed again as they realized Duo's method of punishment was to kiss the Perfect Soldier senseless. McGonagall cleared her throat.
"Gentlemen!" She stressed the word severely. "Please show a little decorum, particularly you, Mr. Potter."
Beneath Duo, Heero tensed. I could see his muscles twitch at the name. I could see Quatre look confusedly at Heero.
Duo saw Heero stiffen as well, and rubbed his arm gently, seeking to soothe him with softly crooned words. After a minute, the two of them returned to their seat, but this time, Duo settled himself in Heero's arms, much like Quatre was in mine, and he levelled an angry glare at the teacher.
Quatre twisted his head around to look at me, and I nodded slightly. We would have to keep an eye on the two of them. Heero was known for his self-restraint but Duo was not. And it had quickly become known throughout the Preventor building that if you wanted to survive as an agent, you did not piss off one Duo Maxwell. And the sure-fire way of pissing him off, was to offend Heero in any way, shape or form.
Duo was unique in that he truly had no allegiance to anyone over himself and Heero. He followed the rules and did his job, much the same way he did throughout the war, but he held his friends in high regard, and considered any slight to us a personal insult, and would not hesitate in seeking retribution.
Wufei was watching closely as well. Quatre wrapped his hands around mine, drawing my arms around his waist and clasping them there.
"So what about Trowa and Wufei?" Ron asked, in an attempt to lighten the situation. McGonagall looked relieved at the question and adjusted her spectacles to look back down on her paper.
"Well, Trowa and Wufei are unique themselves," she said. "They're squibs."
But hang on, don't fret. I have my own theories about squibs, again based on another author's excellent fics in where she made some good arguments and won me over about the true nature of a squib's talents. If you know whom I'm talking about, great, but I won't say here who it is – not until the next chapter is done, and credit is given where credit is due. I don't want too many hints given away about what's to come.
Trowa's mind is insanely hard to get into and write. I hope I didn't butcher him too badly. ^^ Still, my boys are quick healers – none of my damage is ever permanent.
We've beaten the 200 review mark! ^^ This is an FFNet first for me! HoD is still in first place with over 500 personal emails, but this completely rocks! Each time I get a review, I feel obligated to sit down and write more – and look how quickly this part came out, so soon after 15. ^^
This fic is probably going to run to about 20 chapters – maybe – and then end, with plans for an immediate sequel. So sit back – the best is yet to come!
Stormy
Please send comments to: dingostorm@hotmail.com